Immigration Court Observation Project

The Immigration Court Observation Project draws on the international human rights practice of trial monitoring to identify, bring visibility to, and end systemic human rights violations arising in the context of civil immigration enforcement.

The project brings observers from the public into the Fort Snelling Immigration Court in Minnesota to observe and document immigration hearings. The project launched in 2017 to monitor hearings of people facing deportation while held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. Today, volunteers observe hearings on the detained, non-detained, and dedicated families and children dockets.

The Immigration Court Observation Project is a collaboration among The Advocates for Human Rights, the James H. Binger Center for New Americans at the University of Minnesota Law School, and Robins Kaplan LLP in Minnesota.

Shop volunteer courtroom artist Anita White's works here.